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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 3)

  Iranian food meets Turkish wine? How often does this happen? Hopefully more and more often now if this Bitter & Sweet pairing inspires anyone! My friend Lorraine introduced me to The Caspian Chef some time ago. She tangentially knows him through a cousin and thought I would appreciate his style. I immediately fell in love with his recipes and way of cooking. So, when his cookbook, Bitter & Sweet came out, she got it for me. Apparently, The Caspian Chef - otherwise known as Omid Roustaei - and Lorraine's cousin 'do enjoy a wine of an evening' (imagine you're hearing this delivered in my friend's plummy British accent). So,

  Every once in a while, you just have to treat yourself. Even if money is a little tight, or you know what you're buying is overpriced. Such was the situation in which I found myself when I learned about the Argos Nahita Dokya Emir Brut. When I first saw this, I was excited! A new sparkling wine! A new EMIR sparkling wine! But then I saw the price.  Wine sticker shock is real here.  But then Christmas came around (yeah, I really don't write as fast as I drink), so I decided to treat myself.  Argos in Cappadocia Over the course of 10 years, Gökşin Ilıcalı transformed a small, neglected neighborhood of

  Every year, wineries in Turkey release new wine vintages (I mean, of course they do). But new wines are much rarer. Finding out about them isn't always easy either given the ban on advertising alcohol. Sometimes, a wine enthusiast such as myself stumbles across a new wine (or even winery) via social media. Or, in a wine shop.  That's exactly how I learned about the latest release from The Wine Experience Project. Wine Experience Project Created by Göknur Gündoğan and Işık Gülçubuk, they launched the Wine Experience Project, aka Wine Ambassadors at the end of 2020. Per the group's mandate, The Wine Experience Project respects vine, wine, and are “winebassadors” who

  Disclaimer: I received these wines as samples. All opinions are my own. This article contains affiliate links. A couple years ago, I stumbled across Sagavin's wines, maybe on Instagram. I ordered a few bottles to give them a go, but unfortunately, they soon after fell off my radar. Sagavin has wines in maybe a couple few restaurants in Istanbul, but not in shops. I'd contacted the owner, Uğur, a couple few months ago as I wanted to make sure to include them in edition 2 of The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine (coming soon! - I hope, I feel like I've been saying that for months). He reached back

  It might be trite, given how many different grapes grow in Greece, but I love Assyrtiko. Love it, love it, love it. And while I've recently started coming around to mainland Assyrtiko, my heart will always be on Santorini. It was my great privilege to work for a time with Vassaltis Vineyards, one of the best wineries on Santorini. I learned so much working with them, and walked away with some of their incredible wines, including the Gramina, Santorini, and the Vassaltis Vineyards Plethora.  Vassaltis Vineyards One of the youngest wineries on the island, Yannis Valambous established Vassaltis Vineyards in 2014. Vassaltis produces a wide range of wines, most of them

  Despite the massive expense and roadblocks thrown up by the current government, wine production in Turkey continues to expand. Each regions grows a little more every year - be it a new winery, a new grape, new wine offerings, or expanded vineyards. Over the last couple years, Thrace has seen a boom in most of those areas (excepting the new grapes), with Prius Winery becoming one of the region's newest wineries. It came on the scene maybe two years ago. But, I only recently was able to get my hands on some of their wine.  Prius Winery Does Prius Winery need this whole section with a big 'heading 2' sub-title?

  Lent was a wee little while ago. But, I've never been great about blogging about wine as I drink it. Why is Lent even important to the story? I'm glad you asked! I am a big fan of Fat Tuesday - the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent and fasting begins. Catholic fasts are pretty weak sauce when held up against other religions, but I still love Fat Tuesday. This year, I decided to go full Georgian feast and get takeout from one of Istanbul's Georgian restaurants. Naturally, therefore, I needed a Georgian wine to pair! In my wine room exists a collection of dust encrusted red Georgian wines.

  Label designs for wine is a big business. As with any company working on its marketing plan, a winery has to decide how it wants to present itself. Do they have an old-school Schloss or Chateau vibe? Do they want people to think of them as young, fresh, or unpretentious? Depending on the vibe they're going for, a winery might have a whole concept and their labels reflect one specific style. Or maybe they have (sometimes wildly) different styles for different wine series.  And then there are the times when a winery, with a very specific label style, releases a new line with entirely new branding. That's what happened

  Of all the wines I've been able to try from Crete's Lyrarakis Wines, its Thrapsathiri somehow fell between the cracks! With this being one of my favorite Greek grapes, I'm not really sure how I allowed such a travesty to occur. Lucky for me, a friend visiting the winery graciously brought back a bottle for me! The Lyrarakis Wines Armi Thrapsathiri marries one of my favorite Cretan wineries with one of my favorite Greek grapes for (spoiler!) a richly flavored wine full of fruits and the sea.  Lyrarakis Wines It is thanks to wineries like Lyrarakis Wines a lot of unloved and nearly lost Cretan grapes are being reintroduced to the

  Two Suvla pét-nats (so far - dare we hope for more?) made with Yapıncak and Emir have joined the ranks of Turkish pét-nats. They aren't new, I'm just overdue in writing about them. Now that I'm finally getting around to it, I can honestly say that I'm a little in love!  I'd heard rumors about the Suvla Kınalı Yapıncak pét-nat and then got to try it at a tasting a while ago, but hadn't gone in search of it, largely because I was afraid of what the price would be. A legit fear these days. BUT!! As of June (so it may have gone up with the July ÖTV increase)